Knitting for Dummies
by Green1
Summary: Slight Minias/ Rachel. An exhausted new mama-Rachel is just too tired to kick Minias out when he comes around to teach her out to knit.


Knitting for Dumbies by Green

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or general plot. This is a smattering of Minias/ Rachel. General warnings for OOC and all that.

"Tell me WHY I'm doing this again?" I asked, staring down at the awful lump of yarn that refused to become a scarf.

I was exhausted. Lilly had kept me and Al up for most of the night. Just when I thought we might all be getting some rest, Al had been summoned out by some poor fool looking for a quick fortune. Right in the middle of a pleasant good night kiss. I didn't have the energy to care what happened to the summoner.

Fine, I told the universe. I'll wait up until Al got home. Our bedroom, with only myself and Lilly gurgling in her basinet, seemed too big for me. Unease always made me jittery when Al was gone. I hated that.

I moved up to the large study and got the fire started. Just as I was about to sink into the cushy chairs and maybe nap a little, Minias had popped in. He didn't even use the front entrance or call before he came. It was a nasty habit he'd picked up from ... somewhere. Today s lovely surprise had been knitting.

Minias' special talent was his ability to arrive just when Al had left. He never stayed long enough so that Al found him here, but he could smell him. It was almost amusing.

"Maybe," Minias drawled, making me quite clear on what he thought of my knitting abilities, "if you didn't flap your elbows about like a chicken, you might be able to get the hang of it."

I glowered at him from the safety of my chair. My temples pounded. Why was I putting up with him? Al would be furious that he'd visited again and that would be another thing I'd have to deal with, on top of my headache and exhaustion.

Minias shifted in his beautiful green robe, a bright spot of color in the dark glow of the hearth flame. He still caught my breath. His profile was, perhaps, the most appealing in all of the Ever-after. The arched nose a perfect compliment to his angular face and the perfect, smooth skin of his face giving promise to the rest of him.

I should kick him out. He'd go. I know that much, at least.

The problem was ...

Minias shifted, long fingers gently brushing mine to take the mess of knitting yarn away from me. My plastic needles clattered with his silver ones as he set his own work aside. He pulled out the mess, stopping at the section I'd screwed up. "If you could only make yourself concentration," he started, "you'd find this activity to be very relaxing."

I arched my brows. "It would be more relaxing if I could kick you," I said, sticking out the tip of my tongue to let him know I was joking.

He rolled his eyes, handing me the knitting back and watching with rapt attention as I fitting the complicated contraption back around my fingers.

The problem was that I needed his visits as much as he needed to visit me. I'm lonely. Lonely and isolated. Al tries his best to keep me occupied, but I don't exactly fit in with the ranks of demons. That would be far too risky. Anna, Al's new familiar, was a sweet girl (demon speak for broken) but she was much too frightened to speak more than three words to me, regardless of all the favors I'd tried to give me.

Besides, how could I be friends with a familiar so ... tamed? It was a horrible thing to think, but it was true. Anna was, for all purposes, an extension of Al. Everything I said would find its way back to him. That was bad enough but I didn't want to get her into any extra trouble on my account. I couldn't free her but I made certain Al didn't hurt her.

Newt was out of the question. She tried to make herself amiable, but a crazy lady who walked around with a miasma of destruction isn't someone I want to have tea and cookies with. And Dali, the only other demon I'd had close (and uncomfortable) contact with was more my doctor than anything else.

Lilly gurgled and waved a small, plump fist in the air. I leaned over the white wicker basket, nudging it gently. She grinned and blew a spit bubble at me. How was it possible to love one single thing as much as I loved this child? I patted her belly, tickling softly but not as to arouse her from her restive mood.

Straightening, I noticed Minias studying me and I felt another strange tug through me. "Maybe we should try tomorrow?" I asked, knowing damn well it would probably be several days at best before I saw him. That would be for the best. "Lilly was up most of the night," I added by way of explanation.

"Nonsense," Minias said. I wondered if it would feel good to kick him. "Knitting is the perfect thing to do when you've been up all night." My raised brows suggested I thought sleep would be a better option but he didn't acknowledge that. He looked down at his perfect sweater and sighed. "I thought you could learn the basics, at least. Maybe I was wrong."

I glared at him before turning my anger onto the harmless tangled mess in my lap. Stupid scarf. Stupid green yarn. Stupid, stupid Minias for dumping all this in my lap when Lilly had finally calmed down and I could've rested. I drew in a deep breath and thrust the mess at him. "Okay. Then fix it."

He took the bundle and pulled on the main thread, unthreading the mess carefully. He looked too damn confident sitting next to me, maybe almost peaceful. Calling me idiot gives him peace, huh? Two can play that game.

"So Minias," I started, schooling my face to be one of blank interest, "how is Newt and - oh, what's his name again? That young demon they have watching her?"

His head came up and he stared for one moment, two. I looked down at Lilly's little plump hands as she reached for one of the stuffed mobile toys. I looked back up and sighed.

"Okay, okay. That was uncalled for."

He smirked and I blushed, realizing he'd just turned around and dumped the insult back on me.

"Now listen," he began, leaning close. He cast on the large, plastic needles and did my first row again, making me count each stitch as I went to keep from dropping a stitch. "Stop flapping!" he said, when I elbowed him.

"Out loud, Rachel," he said when my voice faded.

We worked in silence, save for my counting. I'd past my previous mark and had turned to show the poor thing to Minias when Lilly let out a soft wail.

It took a moment, and Minias gentle help, to disentangle my fingers.

"She must be hungry," I said, leaning over her. I smiled at him when I picked her up. "That is one pleasant thing about her. She's already on somewhat of a schedule." I patted her bottom affectingly. My hand was already adjusting my shirt when I remembered Minias. "Um," I turned to him. I've never out right kicked him out (God only knows why) but I didn't feel right about undressing in front of him.

"I think maybe you should go," I finished when it was clear that he didn't get the drift.

Minias gave me a look. It said, as if I haven't lived for six thousand years and more than my share of breasts. "Go ahead and feed her." He didn't roll his eyes but I got the feeling he would've if he'd known the gesture.

I felt a blush come over me but Lilly was crying, her body wiggling and her face growing red in anger. Instead of arguing, I shifted away and proffered the breast on the opposite side of him. It took a moment for Lilly to realize it was there and when she latched on, I winced in pain. No one ever mentioned to me that breast feeding hurt but it was a small pain, all things considering.

I settled back in my chair, capturing one tiny fist that beat at my breast. I wasn't certain how I felt about living in this fossilized world or what I feel deep down for Algalierept, but Lilly had slowly became my world, my reason for continuing. I might have lost my family, my friends, and even the sun, but Lilly needed me. She was innocent. There was no way I could leave her in the mess that was the Ever-after.

I sighed and turned to Minias. He wasn't watching Lilly. Rather, he'd been studying the profile of my face. When I looked up, I caught his eyes and saw, for just a moment, a stark longing and need so deep that made me wonder if I'd truly seen it when he turned away.

It couldn t be. Minias hated me. Half the time, I was certain the only reason he came around was to insult me.

Silence stretched out between us, Lilly's suckling and the clicking of Minias needles the only thing to break it. It felt uncomfortable to me and I shifted again. I wasn't the kind of woman who needed constant noise but silence around Minias was unsettling.

"So, ah, what are you doing now, Minias?"

He hadn't taken up his post with Newt. Maybe that was partly the reason I let him come around. That was my fault as well. I'd do it all over again for my freedom, but I still felt the guild. I imagine him floating from one room to another, in a cloud of despair.

Okay. Maybe that's a bit of a stretch.

"I've taken my old post back up," he said. At my look of question, he added, "I used to be the head of the library. I handled all the translations, acquisitions, etc."

I sat up, pulling Lilly off my breast and getting a little greedy squawk from her. I straightened my bra and shirt, and threw the nursing blanket over the other shoulder.

"Library?" I remembered Al mentioning it once but I don't remember the exact details, only that he hadn't been in a thousand years. Still, a library fill with six thousand years of information or more always appealed me. "I've wanted to go and check that out," I admitted. "I've been busy, though." I remembered the time I'd asked Al to take me and his reaction. "And I don't think Al likes the library, for some reason."

Minias snorted as I shifted Lilly to the other breast. I stroked her belly, marveling in the softness of her skin, then pulled the blanket tight around us. Again, when I looked up, Minias was studying me. I wished I had the nerve to ask him what he found so interesting.

He looked down at the small, pink baby sweater in his hands. "His was the deciding vote that gave me to Newt," he said, a bitter look flashing across his face. I stared. He sighed and became his normal passive self. "It was a long time ago," but the way he said it made it seem like it wasn't.

I burned to ask him why but he didn't look to be in the mood to elaborate so instead I asked him, "what's the library like?"

My eyes drooped as his honey velvet voice spilled into the relative quiet of the study. I bent my legs and squished down in the chair, Lilly securely anchored to me. I listened as he spoke of the seven floors of the library, how those normally shifted several times each day from the weight of the information. He told me that if I went into the library, I'd have to take a whistle and mechanical mouse because the library was dangerous. All that knowledge tended to bend the universe.

I felt myself drifting off. It wasn't that Minias was boring me. It was the five sleepless nights I'd had before this. His voice soothed me, gave me that horrible notion that I was safe. Lilly was done feeding and I felt Minias lift her from me, probably burping her.

He put a hand on my shoulder when I struggled to get up. "I'll do it," he said and I sat back with a sigh, not wanting to see my baby in the arms of another man.

"You know," I said, eyes still closed, a smile on my face, "if you keep showing up around here, Lilly will think of you as an uncle." The thought made me giggle. "You'll loose your chance at her."

The basket creaked and inwardly I let a sigh of relief out, drifting further away. I thought I'd fallen asleep until a strangely familiar warmth encompassed me. It wasn't unpleasant but it wasn't Al either. It reminded me of something. What was it?

"It isn't Lilly that I want," I heard someone whisper against my temple.

Just as I fell asleep, I remembered where. The time, so long ago, the night after I'd had the focus taken out of me. I'd felt a warmth by me as I slept, though I'd woken only to a warm spot beside me. I let myself fall into the comfort of that embrace, my body much too tired to stay awake.

The End~

I wrote this back in April. XD I'm avoiding working on the semi-sequal to 'wild fire'. I needed a break so I went through my drabbles and shorts that I'd written several months ago. So if it seems like I'm being ultra productive, I'm not. =P And yes, I'm still trying out various plots for Minias/ Rachel luvin's. 


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